Letters to the Editor 10/14

Jump off alone

In reading Rep. Capps’ Viewpoint regarding passing the American Jobs Act (Oct. 9), I have a viewpoint of my own. Our president recently made a very astute observation regarding his first stimulus program by stating that there were not enough shovel-ready programs available to help get people back to work.

My question to Rep. Capps: What has changed other than the title, stimulus to jobs? President Obama also used another catchy phrase regarding putting lipstick on a pig, still makes it a pig. Rep. Capps can call the jobs bill anything she wants, but it’s still a stimulus program, and we all know how successful his last $700-plus billion program was. We still have a 9.1 percent unemployment rate and a whole bunch of new debt.

Rep. Capps seems willing to throw herself off the cliff and take others who will follow with her. Sorry, Lois, you’ll have to jump by yourself, unless of course you have twice fooled some with your rhetoric.

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Weisenberg v. Knox

I almost had to laugh out loud when I read the letter “On trial for lifestyle” (Oct. 7).

Mr. Morgan’s comparison of Kaylee Ann Weisenberg to Amanda Knox is like comparing apples to oranges.

Amanda Knox was a student studying abroad and was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and her murder conviction was overturned on appeal. If anyone was railroaded, it was definitely Ms. Knox by the Italian justice system.

Ms. Weisenberg, on the other hand, had a history of reckless driving as stated in her jury trial by friends, had “meth residue” in her system and killed a CHP officer. This is hardly an offense where only a speeding ticket is appropriate.

In our justice system, when you take someone’s life, you can be convicted of murder. I do agree with Mr. Morgan that her lifestyle did contribute to this unfortunate incident. People make choices, and you have to be accountable for your actions.

On this day, she left a wife without a husband and children without their father. No one is a winner in this situation, and a second-degree murder conviction is appropriate.

Jeannie Rosen

Paso Robles

Wonderful illusion

So, I’m sitting in bed reading the pink newsprint in section A on Oct. 8 (cute, guys), and although it took me a while to get used to it, I appreciated the sentiment.

Then I switched to the local section, and lo and behold, the news-print looked green!

A beautiful, if perhaps unintended consequence of supporting the drive to find a cure. May this wonderful optical illusion portend a great influx of green for the cause.

Christopher Kitts

Los Osos

Drive slow? Pull over

Regarding the recent fatal accident on Highway 1, the two-lane stretch of that highway is an accident waiting to happen. There are very few places for slower drivers to pull over safely to let others pass, and even where that is possible, many of them do not, sometimes ignoring numerous cars stuck behind them.

There are quite a few places without double lines where it is actually very risky to pass and all but impossible without exceeding the 55-mph speed limit. Of course, exceeding the speed limit to pass is illegal, but human nature makes it likely that after miles of frustration stuck behind a slower vehicle, even normally law-abiding drivers will be tempted to take chances. Slow drivers, please pull over when you see even one impatient driver behind you!

Virginia Bass

San Luis Obispo

Hardworking students

I would like to respond to Superintendent Julian Crocker’s excellent “Viewpoint” on Oct. 1. Baywood Elementary School in Los Osos has some good news to share — we improved our STAR test scores over the previous year!

The staff and I encouraged all of our students last spring to try their best during the STAR test. We had implemented many various interventions throughout the year to assist students, and we expected they would improve.

I had to make good on my promise of a reward if we all worked together and improved our test scores. On Sept. 30 we filled up four school buses and headed to the Fremont in SLO to watch our own private viewing of “A Dolphin’s Tale.”

The marquee said, “Welcome Baywood Elementary,” and the theater staff treated the students like honored guests. The students and staff laughed and cried as we watched the true and touching story of a disabled dolphin. This “STAR Celebration” was a wonderful experience for all. A big thank you to the Baywood staff, parents and employees of the Fremont Theatre, for supporting and celebrating our hardworking students at Baywood!

Doug Jenison

Principal, Baywood Elementary School

Guns weren’t ‘lost’

Regarding the recent Associated Press article on the gun trafficking operation “Fast and Furious,” it was indicated that 2,000 guns were merely “lost,” giving the connotation of something unintended and inadvertent. This was not the case. The guns were not “lost.”

Sold to known straw buyers at the behest of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, there was no attempt whatsoever to track them afterward, only to see where they turned up at crime scenes. The ulterior motive was to manufacture evidence for the claim that most Mexican drug war firearms originate from U.S. retail gun shops, to provide additional fuel for political attacks on U.S. Second Amendment rights.

The “Fast and Furious” operation went exactly as intended. What the plan’s architects didn’t count on was the public blowback that would result when U.S. border agents were killed in conjunction with these arms. That the operation’s planners so heavily discounted the importance of this anticipated collateral damage and the value of those lives involved demonstrates the utter callousness — no, viciousness — of their public disarmament ideology.

It’s time for a nonpolitical special prosecutor to investigate this mess.